Alice Margatroid
"Using so much magic doesn't make you any cooler, you know!" General Information Alice made her first ever appearance in the fifth PC-98 Touhou Project game Mystic Square as the third stage bossand the Extra Stage boss. Afterwards, she appeared again as the third stage boss and midboss in the seventh game, Perfect Cherry Blossom, and as a playable character in Imperishable Night, along with being one of Marisa's choosable partners in Subterranean Animism. She was a playable character in Immaterial and Missing Power and Scarlet Weather Rhapsody and was the Final boss of Cirno's scenario in Touhou Hisoutensoku. Additionally, she was a target on Stage 3 of Shoot the Bullet and has made a background appearance in Hopeless Masquerade. She is a pure all-purpose-type magician youkai who lives in a western-style house in the Forest of Magic without strengths and weaknesses in attributes, but she fundamentally fights in style of manipulating her self-made dolls. She's largely indifferent towards other people and heavily attached to magic. She appears to be strong-willed, but is actually somewhat cowardly. In Mystic Square, she lived in Makai. Just like in her later appearances, she was portrayed as a doll-using magician. Later on, in the Extra Stage, she comes into possession of a grimoire, which she still carries around, albeit sealed. Personality According to Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, she has a high understanding of humans, as she used to be one herself. Her threat level is stated as low, while her human friendship level is high. She gladly gives shelter to people lost in the Forest of Magic. She does, however, seem eerie to people who come across her - she isn't very eager for conversation and focuses entirely on magic research, making visitors flee near-immediately. She showed her hospitality in Immaterial and Missing Power, when she led Sakuya Izayoi out of the forest, as well as in Strange and Bright Nature Deity, where she let the Three Fairies of Light stay at her house. She doesn't perform the usual act of attacking humans, but she unexpectedly likes fights and gladly accepts any challenge. She's an indoors type who usually works alone, but in Perfect Memento in Strict Sense, the range of her place of activities is stated to be "any kind of place" in Gensokyo She performs her share of intermingling with the village, appearing in front of people in times of festivals to exhibit her skills with dolls, which are quite well-received. In each ending of Imperishable Night and Immaterial and Missing Power, she participated in banquets at the Hakurei Shrine. Just like Marisa Kirisame, she has an obsession with collecting things, especially magic items. Although this is an area that could be thought of as an area of commonality between them, there has not been a single depiction that would suggest that she had anything stolen from Marisa. Abilities Alice does not find it enjoyable to win battles with overwhelming power and is more interested in strategy, so she usually fights with power that is a little above that of the opponent and always holds back even if it means losing. She does this out of fear that if she were to be defeated using her true strength, she would have nothing to fall back on. It is unknown if this is fundamental to her personality, or if this is simply something she judged as an efficient strategy. She generally avoids those stronger than her, as shown in Immaterial and Missing Power. Her specialty is manipulating many dolls simultaneously. Due to this, her dexterity is among the finest in Gensokyo. She is able to make her dolls move pretty much in any way humans can, as well as make different dolls perform different actions at the same time, sometimes making them cooperate and sometimes making them move completely asynchronously. Due to this, it looks like she doesn't even manipulate them - for example, Marisa Kirisame commented that "she said that she controls all the dolls herself, but that sounds like a whopper". The dolls can themselves manipulate other dolls, as well. Alice insists on creating new dolls herself rather than letting the already made ones handle the task. She can move the dolls through spoken commands, as shown in chapter 5 of Strange and Bright Nature Deity. The dolls are shown to be capable of speech - such as in Imperishable Night's Prologue, Strange and Bright Nature Deity or Marisa's ending in Subterranean Animism. According to her Perfect Memento in Strict Sense article, she hasn't yet succeeded in creating an independent doll, and a conversation between Marisa Kirisame and Rinnosuke Morichika in Curiosities of Lotus Asia ''chapter 16 suggests that Alice just controls the dolls and pretends they are alive for her own amusement. According to ''Bohemian Archive in Japanese Red, her objective is to make a completely autonomous doll that has its own thoughts and moves by its own volition. In Touhou Hisoutensoku, she unleashes a "Semi-Automaton" doll. However, in her post-battle conversation with Youmu Konpaku, she says that "the strings that attach the body and soul are the same as the ones that control dolls". If this is to be considered, then it could be that Alice controls the dolls with her own spirit. It is not explained if she needs to periodically give them magic power or if they are just fine without, and if they will move even if she does not give them any commands at all. In Touhou Hisoutensoku, Alice did say that "it seems that it's more convenient to control the dolls myself than have dolls that think on their own". It seems that Alice can see through illusions - in Imperishable Night, she figured out Keine Kamishirasawa's true form and saw invisible rays of light coming down from the full moon. She also realized that Fujiwara no Mokou was not actually alive. Whether this is an actual ability of hers or just her being highly perceptive in general is unknown. Story Long ago, in Gensokyo, the creator of Makai, Shinki, tried to free the residents of Makai by releasing them into Gensokyo. But this caused trouble and chaos. Four heroes rose up to put an end to it. Reimu, Marisa, Yuuka, and Mima. During their final battle, Shinki got so mad that, in a desperate attempt to win, she used her devil’s recitation spell which accidentally destroyed all of Gensokyo. Mima sacrificed her life to protect Marisa. After the world was fallen, Shinki’s daughter, Alice, used the power in her Grimoire to create an entirely new Gensokyo out of the magic of the Grimoire, and her own imagination. After that, her physical form died, but her spirit lived on inside the grimoire. But that's not all of it. Alice created the physical form of Gensokyo, Yukari created the boundaries around the dimension, and Shianne created light and darkness. It's rumored that someone else contributed to the creation of Gensokyo, but even if that were true, no one knows who it is, and no one remembers. Relationships Marisa Kirisame Marisa Kirisame is a fellow magician of the Forest of Magic. They fought each other in Perfect Cherry Blossom and, presumably, Mystic Square. They were partners in Imperishable Night, and she supported Marisa in Subterranean Animism. She seems to have a love-hate relationship of sorts with Marisa, with the two often insulting and fighting each other, yet teaming up on several occasions. For all the bickering the two go through, they seem to be close friends, as Alice once recommended Marisa's shop to the Three Fairies of Light when they needed some youkai extermination, and is comfortable enough with Marisa that in Imperishable Night's bad ending, she has no qualms with sleeping over at Marisa's house beside her. Willow Mitochi Willow is Alice's best friend besides Marisa. She's the one who found Alice after running away to Earth during the second lunar war. Sakuya Izayoi Ever since Perfect Cherry Blossom, Sakuya attacks Alice whenever either visit each other's house, and for no good reason. Sakuya says she's attacking in Immaterial and Missing Power to release stress. In Scarlet Weather Rhapsody, she says it's to punish Alice for intruding even after Alice has already left. In both cases, Alice thought it was a poor reason. In comparison, Marisa Kirisame and Youmu Konpaku don't even get into trouble when caught intruding in the mansion (in fact, they usually get tea, instead). Yukari Yakumo For whatever reason, Alice Margatroid is willing to confront Yukari in Immaterial and Missing Power despite otherwise avoiding strong youkai such as Remilia Scarlet and Yuyuko Saigyouji. Yukari's also set up Alice's dolls off-page to allow for long-range communications in Subterranean Animism. Her dialogue towards Yukari in Immaterial and Missing Power shows that they knew each other before then. Like most characters, Alice is still suspicious of Yukari by default. Alice is aware of various youkai roles and agreements that Yukari is constantly preaching. Yukari also harshly scolds Alice in Alice's second bad ending in Immaterial and Missing Power, much to everyone else's entertainment. Quotes "Silly shrine maiden, your two-colored powers are a mere twenty-eight-point-five-seven-one-four percent as powerful as mine!" "Do you find this brutal evening likable?" "Why don't you worry about yourself if you have time to worry about others?" "Ah, I...KNIVES?" "You show up out of nowhere, treat me like some kind of suspect, and then suddenly attack me..." "...Whatever, I don't care anymore." "Ordinary people would go insane in less than five seconds. Are you okay, Marisa?" "My underlings are more disciplined than yours." Category:Story Category:Stage Three Boss Category:Neutral Category:Villains